Students join armed groups to fight military crackdown

As the Myanmar military continues killing civilians daily, including children and students, younger people including university students are choosing to take up arms, believing the only way to defend themselves and fight the military is to join Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups, according to students who have joined such groups.

After the 1 February military coup, hundreds and thousands of students joined with student unions, protesting peacefully. Two months since the coup, civilians are still subject to various forms of brutal repression by the military forces with more than 600 killed so far.

“As they have been killing people lawlessly, I feel I should have had military training to defend myself or to be useful when the time comes,” a second-year history student at Mawlamyine University told University World News.

She said many of her friends had already gone into the jungle to reach out to forces in ethnic armed areas with the aim of providing “more effective assistance” to the people and she would join them once she had ensured the safety of her family.

“If I have basic military training, I can be useful wherever I am,” she said.

“As the military junta has issued orders and directives to members of the security forces to commit violence against unarmed people who are protesting peacefully, and [the military is] breaking in and shooting into houses, we cannot simply protest peacefully anymore but [we must] fight back,” a second-year German language student at Mandalay University of Foreign Languages told University World News.

“We, the Mandalay base, will not go on strike anymore, but we will support the protection of communities and neighbourhoods. So, there are links with ethnic armed groups and we will fight with them,” he said.

Myanmar has around 20 armed rebel groups on its borders fighting for years for greater autonomy. They include the United Wa State Army, Karen National Liberation Army, Kachin Independence Army, Arakan Army, Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army. According to the International Crisis Group, they control around a third of Myanmar’s territory.

The latter three groups have issued a joint statement threatening retaliation for the military repression of the anti-coup protests.

Declaration on ethnic armies and self-defence

The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), made up of elected lawmakers of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently in detention, has promised to build a federal democratic union to restore democracy and is constructively engaging with international actors to pressure the military leaders to ultimately bring freedom back to the people.

“We have ongoing consultations with EAOs (Ethnic Armed Organisations), political parties and strike leaders to build a federal democratic union,” it said in a statement in mid-March.

It also issued a proclamation on the right to self-defence against the coup. “The Committee hereby declares that the responses by means of self-defence according to the law, by anyone, either individuals or ward/village community groups or groups according to the areas or township, shall not be considered as criminal acts,” it said in a statement on 15 March.

Historical precedent

The move by students to fight alongside ethnic groups on Myanmar’s border is not unprecedented.

In 1988, to find ways to continue the struggle after the Myanmar military staged a coup in September 1988, following its brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrations calling for democracy and human rights, the main student union, the All Burma Federation of Student Unions or ABFSU, decided on three strategies: maintain semi-underground networks, form a political party and take up arms.

Thousands – mostly students, youth and intellectuals – left for areas bordering on Thailand, India, China and Bangladesh and founded the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front or ABSDF on 1 November 1988, on the Burma-Thailand border. It was the largest student organisation in the border regions.

“It was very difficult during that time to speak out and let the world know they were killing us, they were arresting and torturing us. However, the advantage of this era is that news is updated every minute on what’s happening in Myanmar,” an ABSDF member said in an interview at Karen Information Centre last week.

Since then, ABSDF has been fighting for democracy and human rights in Myanmar alongside other democratic groups and ethnic forces. The ABSDF member said the methods of the Myanmar military in 1988 and now are exactly the same, though the number of the people killed in 1988 was a lot higher. “Due to a lack of media attention, the world did not hear about it,” he said.

“We have been fighting for over 30 years. However, the world is changing, the military junta will not win this time because the media is very strong and updated all the time. We must win,” he added.

Increasing risk of civil war

Although some EAOs have made statements against the coup, they are not a single force. Fighting broke out last month between the junta and the Kachin Independence Army and separately between the junta and the Karen National Liberation Army.

The military junta is taking the offensive with air strike bombings to the areas and residents have been forced to flee their homes. Some were killed, others seriously injured.

The possibility of an alliance with ethnic armed groups and the move by students to join them has increased the possibility of civil war.

In an interview published in German by Funke media group on Sunday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned that a civil war in Myanmar was possible.

“The military has driven Myanmar to the brink of disaster within a few weeks. Well over 500 people have already been killed, thousands are on the run,” Maas said.

Dr Sasa (who goes by one name), CRPH’s international envoy, who has been charged with treason by the military junta, called on the international community to act now before it is too late.

“Many more bloody days, weeks and months are coming ahead. How many dead bodies are necessary for the international community to take strong action against the military regime?” he said.

CRPH spokesperson U Yee Mon said in an interview with Irrawaddy media, whether or not there is a civil war will depend on the military regime. “The Burmese Spring Revolution will use all possible means” against them, he said.

Demand for democratic education

Some 122 university student unions across Myanmar on 4 April called for the CRPH to guarantee the country’s future education at a time when repression by the military is rampant, ABFSU’s vice president told University World News.

He added: “The CRPH welcomes the unification of students’ unions to secure important guarantees for the country’s future education.”

Student unions listed nine points to guarantee federal democratic education, including that an education policy be drawn up with the involvement of student union representatives and experts in drafting rules and regulations, university autonomy and freedom of education.

Zaw Wai Soe, the union minister for three ministries, including health and sports; education; and labour, immigration and population, was also charged with attempted treason under section 505 of the Penal Code by the military ruling body the State Administration Council.

He said: “Federal democratic education will be presented to the National Unity Advisory Council that includes our ethnic brothers and sisters, student unions and teachers’ unions.”

State-run media on Wednesday reported that some 3.7 million people in Myanmar have never been to school, according to the census conducted in 2019.

Raids on student unions and student arrests

Student unions continue to be a target of the military. The Myanmar forces raided the University of Yangon Students’ Union (UYSU) office two weeks ago, according to UYSU. They said, however, that important materials and documents had already been transferred from the union office.

The military forces had already raided university campuses across Myanmar last month.

“There are many students left in prison and many more people, not just student leaders but also people who sell food, have been detained. The strategy of ABFSU is that we will keep protesting peacefully until we get democracy,” a fourth-year student at Yangon University of Education who is vice president of the All Burma Federation of Students Unions (ABFSU), told University World News.

Violent crackdowns on protests continued this week, including in Pinlebu town in Katha District, Sagaing Division, on 5 April.

During the military assaults, two students were arrested, one man was killed and two wounded civilians were also arrested. Gunfire was used against crowds of people demanding the release of the two detained students, according to a report by Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) in Myanmar.

Eleven civilians including Ma Pho Pho Mon Kyaw, a final-year student of Japanese language at the Yangon University of Foreign Languages, and Ma Yin Thet Tin, who graduated with a Master of Economics from the Singapore Institute of Management, were arrested immediately after being interviewed by London-based CNN chief correspondent Clarissa Ward on 5 April, who was allowed by the military into the country and filmed there under their strict controls.

The students were later released after CNN asked a senior member of the military leadership during an interview why they were arresting people for talking to CNN.

According to AAPP’s latest report, 2,847 people are currently in detention: of those, 38 have been sentenced. Some 481 have been issued arrest warrants. Around 614 people are now confirmed killed by the military forces since the coup and the number of fatalities is likely much higher, a member of AAPP told University World News.